Haha, well welcome back! Definitely lots going on within close proximity to each other- Music Factory, Water Street, Westin Hotel, Texican Hotel and the Hidden Ridge Development. The walking distance between all these projects is 1.5 miles which means you could walk from Hidden Ridge over to Water Street in about 25 minutes.

I think the only tenant that's supposed to be open by Labor Day is Bar Louie... In fact, they announced they would open in August. Bar Louie and Thirsty Lion are right next to each other on Las Colinas Blvd. You can easily see that BL is significantly further along on build-out...

On another note, the crane for the Westin Hotel went up over the weekend. They seem to be moving rather quickly!

Here's a current view of the Pioneer/HiddenRidge/Verizon work... (I still don't know what to call this place officially). The site is huge, and so much of it still hasn't been touched yet. You can also see the Music Factory with the white roof in the back left.

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Seeing all those places on the map makes you realize how many food options there are here. Good thing we love to eat out here, because that is a LOT of restaurants! North Shore needs to get a move on... Poo, or get off the pot, already!At least these places should have plenty of construction workers to feed for the next year.

It seems that Whiskey Cake on Regent is a go (permits have been granted). Anyone know any of the new retailers coming into the strip on 635 east of Cowboy Chicken? The new Pinstack seems to be a roaring success so far. Also, I noticed a new Dairy Queen is going up off 183 and Story Road.

^^ Yes, so far they have signed India 101 and Liberty Burger. Also, Taco Bell is getting underway right next to Slim Chickens. I haven't made it to Pinstack yet, but drove by about 12:30 last night and it was packed!

Kelley USA wrote:^^ Yes, so far they have signed India 101 and Liberty Burger. Also, Taco Bell is getting underway right next to Slim Chickens. I haven't made it to Pinstack yet, but drove by about 12:30 last night and it was packed!

Of course....My partner and I joke all the time that since moving to Irving, we would love to see one shopping strip that didn't have an Indian restaurant and/or a dental clinic. It seems mandatory around here.

Kelley USA wrote:^^ Yes, so far they have signed India 101 and Liberty Burger. Also, Taco Bell is getting underway right next to Slim Chickens. I haven't made it to Pinstack yet, but drove by about 12:30 last night and it was packed!

I came to pinstacks this weekend. Looks like a hit with the families! There's indoor rock climbing, video arcade and bowling and food for order.

A couple of notes from the current City Council Agenda and just a few other things I've seen around town...

1. Looks like Pei Wei will be moving their Corporate Headquarters to Irving from Scottsdale, AZ. That's a nice get for Irving!

2. I can't really tell by the language, but Gables is either gearing up for Phase 2 of Water Street or they're asking for new requirements for the current build. I'll have to wait until the packet is posted online for more info!

3. The Music Factory is really starting to take noticeable shape. They've been clearing out all the trash and construction trailers and finally started pouring concrete for the roads. They have about 1000 workers on-site right now.

4. They've been taking soil samples on some of the other vacant tracks at the Hidden Ridge development. Could be perhaps for another office building, or maybe an apartment developer??

Kelley USA wrote:A couple of notes from the current City Council Agenda and just a few other things I've seen around town...

1. Looks like Pei Wei will be moving their Corporate Headquarters to Irving from Scottsdale, AZ. That's a nice get for Irving!

2. I can't really tell by the language, but Gables is either gearing up for Phase 2 of Water Street or they're asking for new requirements for the current build. I'll have to wait until the packet is posted online for more info!

3. The Music Factory is really starting to take noticeable shape. They've been clearing out all the trash and construction trailers and finally started pouring concrete for the roads. They have about 1000 workers on-site right now.

4. They've been taking soil samples on some of the other vacant tracks at the Hidden Ridge development. Could be perhaps for another office building, or maybe an apartment developer??

Interesting news all around... DFW in general seems to have quite a few restaurant HQs... Irving has several itself. Glad to see this continue with something as sizable as Pei Wei.

Gables deal is interesting... Seems late for changes, unless it's something as trivial as signage variance for new tenants or something like that (Las Colinas has some very strict guidelines... on top of Irving's already fairly strict rules). As I've stated previously (probably too many times), Water Street in it's current form is way under built. If indeed Gables goes bigger for the second phase, that will be a welcome sight. I never really understood why they were so cautious in the first place. High end apartments have made a killing in the urban center, and piling them on top of those one story retail stores along O'Connor would have been a slam dunk. Anyways, water under the bridge.

Cognizant is based in New Jersey and has its technology solutions U.S. headquarters in College Station and an office on Las Colinas Boulevard in Irving. In 2016, Cognizant employed more than 260,000 people -- bulk of it in India -- and had total revenues of nearly $13.5 billion.

The business services firm is one of two companies looking to expand its footprint in Irving.

Gartner Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, plans to grow its Irving office and hire at least 150 and up to 800 workers in its office at 6011 Connection Drive, according to the city council agenda.

4. They've been taking soil samples on some of the other vacant tracks at the Hidden Ridge development. Could be perhaps for another office building, or maybe an apartment developer??

Watching more core samples today... Looks to be the area on the far eastern side of the development closes to 114 and Hidden Ridge. As you stated, this appears to be location designated as 'office' on the site plan (they're currently at the three blue blds on the far right of this picture).

2. I can't really tell by the language, but Gables is either gearing up for Phase 2 of Water Street or they're asking for new requirements for the current build. I'll have to wait until the packet is posted online for more info!

Looking at the packet, it appears they are just tweaking some of the original phase by reducing parking requirements (yay), reducing some retail (10-20k sq ft), and adding restaurant (35-55k sq ft). These buildings were always part of the initial Phase 1 site plan from what I recall, but I haven't seen if they were being built yet or not.

So, it looks like we are still in a 'wait and see' status for Phase 2.

So I'm not sure how deeply to read into this, but there is a small 'now hiring' banner hanging from the whole foods at 161 and macarthur. the site has been empty for the last few months after the ~1 month false start of activity in the spring.

homeworld1031tx wrote:So I'm not sure how deeply to read into this, but there is a small 'now hiring' banner hanging from the whole foods at 161 and macarthur. the site has been empty for the last few months after the ~1 month false start of activity in the spring.

I noticed that the lights have been on lately... but maybe they always have been and I didn't notice it until last week.

This Whole Foods thing has been a bit entertaining. It's almost like some mythical creature at this point. Many have heard of it's existence, but it's never been experienced first hand.

I've been checking the Las Colinas store page on the Whole Foods website fairly often, and it's been updated recently, as well. It now says "opening Fall 2017" rather than "opening 2017"). And in all caps "NOW HIRING!"

I see cladding going up on the office building portion of the Music Factory. It looks like the glass is still covered with a film, and I'm a bit to far for a decent picture, so I can't really tell what it'll look like. If/when I get a chance, and the film is removed, I'll try to get something.

EDIT: I can't help but think that the developer wishes they could have made that building two or three times taller. If I'm not mistaken, they tried; but the city swatted that request away. It is technically on city land after all, and they felt that it could be interpreted as city subsidized office and therefore compete unfairly with other potential office sites. Either way, the success of this office space should spark more development in LC urban center... you'd think anyway.

There is a new hotel plan for the old Republic, Sfuzzi, LC Prime, Table & Tavern location. If you remember a developer had come forward to tear the building down and put up a 6 or 7 story Element Hotel. That plan has been scrapped and a new 12 story hotel will go up in it's place. Not sure if it's the same developer or if it'll still be an Element Hotel (but it will be Marriott branded).

It's crunch time for the Music Factory... First show is in 3 days and still a TON of work to be done around the area. There's absolutely no signage regarding parking etc... My assumption is that parking is going to be a nightmare! Bar Louie is the first tenant to have signs up on the building. They'll be the first tenant opening in mid-September. Some of the landscape work started today. They also started to put up some cheap signage on the exterior of the storefronts (i.e.- Coming Soon Yardhouse, Kabuki etc...).

The parking for a while will be in the finished parking garage for the towers next door. But I cannot see how they finish the performance hall to a satisfactory degree before the first Chapelle concert. I wonder if they will move it to the Irving Convention Center or cancel "because of" Harvey.

Found a little bit of interesting information today pertaining to the gateway into the Urban Center- 114, O'Connor, Las Colinas Blvd... Sarofim is proposing a new development as outlined in the Las Colinas Supplementary Voters Guide. If you remember the Hidden Ridge Development had to go through the same process.

Kelley USA wrote:Found a little bit of interesting information today pertaining to the gateway into the Urban Center- 114, O'Connor, Las Colinas Blvd... Sarofim is proposing a new development as outlined in the Las Colinas Supplementary Voters Guide. If you remember the Hidden Ridge Development had to go through the same process.

Good to see activity spurned on by MF and WS developments. Looks like they asking to nix the requirement for 'storefronts' along the canal portion of the property. I get that requiring a store front along this section of canal isn't really practical, but I hope they don't intend for just straight up parking garage along the canal. Other similar properties along the water have easily incorporated workout facilities, meeting rooms, cafeterias, etc along the bottom floors of their garage. I don't see why this would be an exception. Storefront... not necessary. Garage... shouldn't be allowed.

I'm not sure why a majority of remaining canal area development isn't encouraged to go residential, like, thousands of dwellings.... I get the pull of office buildings and an even larger employment center, but Lake Caroline is a fantastic residential location.

Just drove by the MF and was able to peek inside the Pavilion from the 114 access road.... Ummm, if this is going to be ready tomorrow then I'll believe it when I see it. It's still an incredible mess and still not a blade of grass for "lawn" seating. Just straight up dirt! Jeff Foxworthy & Larry The Cable Guy have already cancelled their Sunday night show (could be poor ticket sales though). I have a good buddy that works in construction for a large electrical company. He said Skanska is notorious for delivering projects late. He said a number of companies, cities, school districts etc... will no longer work with them. He said it's not a shot against their ability to deliver a quality project, but more so that they never seem to deliver on-time.

According to Dallas Observer, the reason the Foxworthy show is cancelled is because the Houston counterpart was cancelled and canceling this one is "out of respect." Anyway, wasn't that supposed to happen after Dave Chappelle on the 31st? I still can't see them delivering by that date.

Yep, shocker! What an embarrassment. I never really saw much urgency for them to get this finished until the past few weeks. So many weekends I drove by and not a worker on site. It's probably for the best. If they had opened this weekend it would have been a disaster and left a bad taste.

I have tix for the Friday show and while I'm disappointed, I'd rather them deliver a finished product. I also drive by there twice a day, to and from work, and I think being finished next week is still a tall task!!! We'll see...

I saw a number of police and fire personnel walking the property this morning too. My assumption would be the Police and Fire Chief probably were not willing to sign off on opening this up due to safety concerns. If you read my post above my buddy basically nailed it regarding Skanska. About an hour after I posted that they cancelled the weekend... I had tickets to Chappelle tomorrow and Brad Paisley on Saturday. Huge bummer!

I was already bummed that nothing would be open other than the pavilion. Even with a good show, it probably wouldn't be a great experience without anything else to do before or afterwards. That is what is terrible about so many of the existing facilities, and what sets this one apart. At least there will be (ahem... 'should be') more stuff open when Chappelle comes back around. I think it's important to make a good first impression. Show or not... this will def be a place our family will be hanging out at. Can't wait.

"Investors are pouring into Irving, and the projects they are building range from new hotels to corporate office parks, restaurants to new single family homes," Irving City Manager Chris Hillman said in a statement.

In addition to the new medical facilities, warehouses, apartment complexes and restaurant and retail projects started this year, Irving also has granted permits for about 700 single-family homes.

Landscaping looks done at the Music Factory. I saw about 60 workers putting it all together in one day last week... lol. The hotel across the street from the convention center (The Texican, I think?) is well under way. Not to be confused with the Convention Center Hotel itself which is also well under way.Excavators still in full swing at Hidden Ridge.Also, the mythical Whole Foods is opening the last week of this month.

Posted this in the Amazon thread too, but the City is having an Executive Session meeting on Wednesday to discuss Amazon HQ2. They'll make a good run no doubt! I'm sure the Texas Stadium site would be preferred since it's really the only place with enough land. Hidden Ridge would be great, but the footprint is too small to add something the size of Amazon.

On another note, looks like Texas Roadhouse is looking to build a restaurant in front of Home Depot on 635. I would actually expect most of that frontage to fill up with restaurants very soon considering the amount of activity at Cypress Waters.

Forgot to mention that I walked down to Bar Louie on Friday night with some friends. They had a little grand opening with a DJ. Place was pretty crowded (maybe about 70% full. The finish-out is nice on the inside. Staff was super attentive. Drinks and food were both pretty good!

Also walked down and met some friends for the Cowboys game yesterday. Place was about 20% full when I arrived at 3:15. There was a concert last night too, so between 5 and 7 every single table and seat at the bar was taken. Not even an empty seat outside on the patio. Staff was running around like crazy but they did a great job! When I first arrived they had music playing. About 3 or 4 different tables asked if they could put the sound of the game on instead. They obliged and cranked up the Cowboys game.

They also have $5 Burger specials every Tuesday from 5pm - 2am (includes fries or tots). Our waitress told us that Bar Louie is open every single day until 2am even on Holiday's. Good to know!

That Budget Suites at the bottom needs to be mowed down. That place is a dump, and I've witnessed more than one police foot chase through the parking lot.

I know it's completely unrelated, but every time I see the renderings for the new Texican hotel, it reminds me of this awful Budget Suites complex. No doubt they'll be a world apart, but I can't help but see the similarities on the surface.